Electronic devices, for example, mobile phones, allow a user to have a telephone conversation or listen to radio or prerecorded music using an earphone attached to an end of a cable. Earphones protect the user from radio emissions and allow the user to drive safely by precluding the need to hold the electronic device to the user's ear while using the electronic device. Earphones are of different sizes and produce output at different levels of quality. A particular predetermined length of the cable housing the earphones is not always optimal or ideal for all users. In some cases, cables longer than that required by a user are provided to the user. If the user finds the length of the cable too long, the user tries to reduce the length of the cable by winding some portion of the cable around the electronic device. Winding the cable around the electronic device creates stress on wires inside the cable. Moreover, inadequate housing of the cables may result in cross talk and electronic noise, thereby reducing the quality of an audio signal transmitted though the cable. In addition, when the earphones are not in use, the earphones along with the cable need to be conveniently stored. Usually, users store the earphones in their pockets. In order to answer an incoming call, the users are required to connect the earphones to the mobile phone, which is inconvenient for the users.
To eliminate the stress created on the wires inside the cable, there is a need for a convenient housing for winding the cable in the housing irrespective of the length of the cable and for reducing cross talk and electronic noise. Moreover, there is a need for enclosing the electronic device against the housing to allow a user to conveniently release the cable that houses the earphones and answer an incoming call or listen to the radio or any prerecorded music and retract the cable when not in use. Conventional retraction mechanisms inefficiently retract the cable, which result in tangling of the cable and difficulty in releasing the cable when required.
Moreover, some retraction mechanisms comprise springs used for facilitating winding of the cable in a housing. However, these springs wear out, which disallow retraction of the cable into the housing, thereby causing an inconvenience to the user due to the inability to retract the cable into the housing. Therefore, there is need for additional or secondary provisions for retracting the cable into the housing independent of a single means for retracting the cable.
Hence, there is a long felt but unresolved need for a retraction apparatus that retracts a retractable cable into a support housing, allows mounting of an electronic device adjacent to a retraction mechanism, and provides selective mechanisms for retracting the retractable cable into the support housing.